


The Voice in their Heads

by Ducarion



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Depression, Gen, Grey Gabriel Agreste, Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste, Hawkmoth-senses, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Introspection, Self-Esteem Issues, Unreliable Narrator, Vigilante Gabriel Agreste
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 15:22:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19832992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ducarion/pseuds/Ducarion
Summary: Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth long before Stoneheart, long before he put on his villain's mask.The wielder of the Butterfly Miraculous cannot help but feel the negative emotions of others, hero or not. For years, Gabriel spent his spare time doing what little he could to alleviate Paris's pain. It was not heroes that helped them then, but a soft voice that whispered in the dark to help them through the dark times of their lives, just showing them that someone cared.Emile's loss had closed that chapter of his life. It had been a never-ending, thankless task, and Gabriel told himself that he was glad to see it pass. Such activities would be of no use to him in attaining Cat Noir and Ladybug's Miraculouses, after all; he needed to draw them out in the most ridiculous way, scripting the world as if he was the worst villain imaginable.It would have been fine, except Gabriel forgot to factor in the people he'd had already saved.





	The Voice in their Heads

Gabriel Agreste had never had any intention of being a hero, but he refused to be reduced to the category of ‘villain’. It was demeaning.

Gabriel- unlike the other Miraculous wielders- had gained the butterfly miraculous through his own efforts. He had not relied on the whims of fate or the machinations of a meddling old man, he had gone out into the world and actually _looked_ for objects that their texts what their texts so easily dismissed as lost.

Heroes had failed his _kwami,_ but Gabriel had long ago promised himself that he would protect what was his.

At any cost.

Closing his eyes, Gabriel stretched out his senses over Paris. Like any butterfly, Nooroo could see what humans could not. In this instance, Gabriel referred to the manner in which the emotions of the city’s teeming masses were laid bare for him. They ranged from the painfully rational, like Natalie, to those whose very souls were crying out for aid. Gabriel could no more ignore the instinct to help them than Cat Noir could resist jumping off of buildings.

As Hawkmoth, of course, Gabriel found it necessary to seek out those with hot, directionless frustration. Such emotions were easiest to manipulate on a tight schedule, and with Ladybug and Chat Noir around, it was vital that Gabriel did nothing to attract media attention to his civilian identity. Despite this, though, Gabriel still preferred people brought to such thoughts by injustice rather than cruelty, especially if it was true criminal intent.

Gabriel refused to ever reward true criminals for their actions.

Perhaps that was a weakness. Certainly, Cat Noir and Ladybug showed no compunctions hurting innocent akumatized civilians, so Hawkmoth had reason to set the darkest of humanity against them, but that was not who Gabriel was. That was not the man Emile had loved.

Emile had loved a lonely man who spent years as the voice in the dark, comforting those to filled with dark despair that they could not reach out themselves without ever having to leave his room. That had been truly fulfilling work for Gabriel, and apparently something that the ‘true’ Miraculous Wielders felt no need to lower themselves to.

No, he wasn’t bitter about how his decision to become a super-villain had meant that the Miraculous Wielder had done more good for Paris than they had in years, why do you ask?

Gabriel had loved it every time that he could tell someone that they were not alone and even now, when his name was widely known, his old targets did not speak of him. Even when his name and their knowledge might bring them fame, when they could have told their families that they had not been delusional, after all.

Gabriel felt gratitude towards them; Hawkmoth was made to be the Enemy now, and he could not afford to have the heroes step back and think about what Hawkmoth’s motives could actually be.

Not when their guardian had chosen so well.

Children thought in black and white so easily, and had no desire to see more.


End file.
